Summary: Why a mid-flight Diet Coke has turned into a national conversation on Islamophobia. And before Caitlyn Jenner, there was Joy Ladin, the first openly trans professor at an Orthodox Jewish university.

Islamophobia in the Skies

June 04, 2015

It started with a Facebook post about a Diet Coke. On May 29, a Muslim woman who wears the hijab posted this on her Facebook page: "I am sitting on a United Airlines flight in the air 30,000 feet above and I am in tears of humiliation." She had asked the flight attendant for an unopened can of soda, and was told no, her soda could be used "as a weapon." The story has exploded online, with reaction from eye rolls to outrage, and the flight attendant has been fired. A panel of Muslim and Sikh civil rights advocates who have faced their own problems at airports explain why this story struck such a nerve.

Hoda Hawa, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Muslim Public Affairs CouncilRiham Osman, Communications Coordinator for the Muslim Public Affairs Council
Rajdeep Singh, Senior Director of Law and Policy at the Sikh Coalition

Joy Ladin, Finding Her True Self

June 04, 2015

Before Caitlyn Jenner, there was Joy Ladin. Joy is the first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox Jewish university, and Maureen’s 2009 conversation with her remains one of our most memorable. Back in 2007, when the tenured English professor informed Yeshiva University that she would be transitioning her gender, the school first responded by putting her on indefinite leave. Hers is a story of a poet, a Jew, and above all, a woman—in her own words, "caught in the act of becoming."